Final Reflection

In 10 weeks I have learned so many interesting and amazing things about German culture and the cultures of the other German speaking countries. I never would have thought that our cultures as Americans, and that of the Germans or the other cultures that speak German would be so similar. They live off humor and have a different sense of humor than we do. The German people are just so incredibly fascinating and they are such a friendly, and very welcoming group of people. They have a more mature sense of humor but at the same time the people seem to have a nice classy feel about them. They make Germany seem like a very fun and exciting place to go visit and seems like it would be a good time.

In Germany during Karneval they make floats making fun of their politicians and other political aspects of even other culture! That is very similar to what we do here. We don’t always use floats to do it that way but we use satirical TV shows such as The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live. The humor may be different but it is humor based on the same type of things and that makes us very common in that regard. Both our cultures eat together as a family at dinner but it seems more likely in our culture that we do not get to spend that much time eating with our families that the German people do. They are much more friendly at public places. They let complete strangers sit next to them and talk to them without a second thought. There is nothing wrong with that but it is definitely something we do not tend to do in America. Both of our cultures are very family oriented and love celebrating the holidays together.

The German speaking countries have a lot more in common than just the fact they all speak German. They are all in a close area together and anything that usually affects one can have an effect on the other surrounding areas. They all have the same problems between them. They have gas price issues, debates about laws involving worldwide and controversial issues like abortion. They are all similar to each other and to an extend a lot of the western world in those aspects. Outside of Germany the other countries do not tend to get involved in the major conflicts that are happening with Iraq and Afghanistan. They have a very close connection with each other since WWII even if it was in a forceful way. All in all they all have a very nice feel about them and have that welcoming free willed European vibe that we read about in America.

Within 10 weeks of studying German culture I have found that my eyes are more open to learning how they live their day to day lives, how they celebrate holidays and just all about them in general. I did not really have an opinion about the German culture in a negative or a positive away before these ten weeks but the one that I have now is a fairly good one. I may not agree with how graphic some of the floats are at karneval with it being a family event but I am also pleasantly surprised to see how family oriented they really are. They just invite strangers to do things with them, while in America that is a very rare thing to see. Also in a strange way it is nice to see that even though the horrors of WWII will never be forgotten, that the rest of world does not hold them accountable any longer and they are just normal people like everyone else.

Karneval!

http://cdn2.spiegel.de/images/image-188865-galleryV9-xgpp.jpg

http://cdn3.spiegel.de/images/image-188716-galleryV9-cxrk.jpg

   The event of carnival begins on November 11 at 11:11. The Carnival season is also called the 5th season in Germany and is not actually celebrating until 40 days before easter, on Ash Wednesday. Carnival is a very fun time for the German people. They wait for it every year with excitement. The Carnival season is enjoyed by people dressing up in costumes and people building floats making fun of various aspects of local, national, and even international cultures. They enjoy as much a possible during this time, with having family and friends or even strangers over they have feasts and consume as much food as they can. On Fat Tuesday they have an even bigger feast because lent starts the following day and they cannot eat meat on Ash Wedsday or on Fridays.

   In America we celebrate what they call Carnival as Mardi Gras. We also do not celebrate it nearly as long as they do. Mardi Gras in america is popular the most in New Orleans. Where people dress up in costumes or masks and have crazy parties. it is no where near as important to us as it is to the german people. It is strange to see how other cultures have festivities that we do not and how they choose to celebrate. They also do not seem to care the content of their floats. Some of them Feature Nudity and and vulgar words and in America we would either limit that or not even be allowed to include it. It is interesting to see all the costumes that they tend to dress up in so we can see how similar or extremely different each of them really are.

    The floats for this year will probably include something that has to do with how the issues in Iran are affecting world leaders or how the Germans are having to bail out Italy and Greece from their Financial issues.

Prince Vetos a Veto?

      In Liechtenstein the royal family is in danger of losing their right to veto laws. pro-democracy campaigners are in the process of getting enough follows behind a petition so that they can remove the power to veto from the royal family. The prince has vetoed this attempt to get rid of a veto. In a sense he is vetoing a veto. He also plans on vetoing a law that comes in during September that would legalize Abortion. In the end it does not matter because Even though the prince Vetoed the plan to get rid of Vetoing, the veto was not needed because the people voted against the law change anyway.
    In this day and age it seems like the prince or royal family most nations does not have any real power in government. I like the fact that their are at least some nations in the world that the royal family of a country still has power. In America we would never allow for a royal family or any one person to have the power to control government alone. The major powers of the world do not allow for a royal family to have any real power and they are mostly just heads of state. they are just their for the history or for show. The people of Liechtenstein will probably get rid of the rights of the royal family within a matter of time just like other countries around the world.

http://www.incyprus.com.cy/en-gb/Showbiz/4118/25741/prince-vetoes-the-veto

Austrian petrol prices see record highs

The prices of Petrol in Austria are rising rapidly. they reached a high of 1.412 euros, which is the same as 1.90 in U.S. dollars. they are worried that the price is going to just keep going up and up and reach the top price point they have ever had. The highest they have have had was in the summer of 2008 for diesel prices. they are worried that if the conflict in Iran is agitated that they will be the victims of even high price hikes for crude oil.

This is similar to our culture in the sense that we freak out if the gas prices rise also. We are at an average of 3.60 a gallon here and also have the fear that if things escalate in iran gas prices would be worse for us also. it is strange to see that other countries are having gas price issues just as we are.

Charlie Chaplin's star on rise again

This article is about the great actor Charlie Chaplin. He was not only one of the greatest actors of american movies, he was one of the best actors in all of the world. The article is talking about how in Switzerland Michael Chaplin is trying to use his fathers house that he was exiled to when he left America during the Mccarthy era in the United States. He lived the last 25 years of his life there.
   The Swiss people loved him just as much as Americans did and the rest of the world. His house is pretty much the same way as he left it 25 years ago this year when he passed away early christmas day. there has been different arguements as to where this museum should be, with France and Hollywood as being the other two places that have been in consideration. His son would prefer that it was the one in Switzerland. i was surprised in the fact that he was as popular, if not more than he was here in America in the sense that there is even a consideration. It is strange to see also that they are so into movies in the same way that we are.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/extraordinary_exiles/Charlie_Chaplins_star_on_rise_again.html?cid=12814

Stasi chief's office reopened in new exhibition

   The Stazi was created in order to spy on the East German people from 1957 until 1989. This Museum is an interesting one because it gives a glimpse into what the cold war was like from the Allied controlled West Germany. the interior of the office shows that even though the rest of the world saw the area as black and white and that the people inside Germany also saw it as black and white, that there was color in the strangest places. The German government has invest about 14 Billon dollars or about 11 euros into renovating the office and making it into a museum.
    The thing that surprised me the most was the color scheme on the inside of the office. The carpet was bright red and the furniture was a real bright blue. Besides pictures being black and white i just always have imagined the Cold War era in Germany as a dark and dismal place and then in the heart of one of the biggest spy offices, there was this array of colors. The fact that it was revealed that the office was spying on the East Germany people that was communist run and that seems to go with everything i have heard and studied about there being espionage.
    The cultural aspect about this is that the German People who saved the furniture and thousands of papers in the 80s wanted to immortalize what they had went through for the future generations to see. The German people have had a lot happen to them since the beginning of the 20th century and they know that they can not run and hide from the past and they also know that learning about the past is the only way to not repeat the past. This museum is a great piece of history for them.
This Article byMarcel Fürstenau can be read at http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15667988,00.html

Differenting Cultures

American culture is different in many ways from German. In Germany they are more comfortable with there bodies more than people in American culture are. Germans have nude beaches and nude clubs in which they are nude while Americans tend to be more clothed in public than not. In germany drinking is more social and more accepted than it is in America, where we tend to look down upon people who drink too much.
     What i think German culture is, is that they are a proud country and have one of the most respectable economies in all of europe. they have been instigators of two world wars and were even divided in almost half by the allies after the second one, but in the end they came back like they had always done and thrived as a democratic power in the world and they are a key ally to America in the modern era. They are set in their ways and often get a bad rep from the rest of the world based on history.
  Also it seems that it would be very hard and that there are few people who choose to be a vegan in Germany and then here in America it seems to be more and more common because in Germany meat eating seems to be more sporty and a stable in meals than it is here.
   Just from learning about the culture in class and using information that i have already known about Germany through history classes i feel that my thoughts are pretty well valid and some of it may be a little on the exaggeration side.